Call the bomb-sniffing robot!

The county Bomb Task Force was called in May 19 to detonate a World War II era mortar shell on Cal Poly land north of SLO.

Cal Poly Environmental Health and Safety Manager Dave Ragsdale said that the Army Corp of Engineers found the 16-mm mortar shell during a scheduled sweep of the area, east of Highway 1. Ragsdale said that Cal Poly owns about 3,000 acres, which used to be part of Camp San Luis.

The area is one of several FUDS—or Formerly Used Defense Sites—in the state. Basically, the whole east side of the highway, he said, used to be an artillery range. The find was part of an ongoing process to rid the property of undetonated weapons. It’s the third such sweep since the ’60s. Last year, the Corps found several undetonated devices, including a bazooka rocket, and a few weeks ago, they found a grenade in a creek bed.